Reviews tagging 'Fatphobia'

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

22 reviews

sarah984's review

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I liked parts of this book, but overall it disappointed me. The little flairs to remind you the book is set in the 90s are pretty cute. Some of the scares really worked for me (there is a scene where the main character is trying to escape a location without being seen that is both so tense and SO gross, and I'm not usually squeamish), and the idea of a vampire that is hunger personified (he just always wants more no matter what) was interesting. When the book club finally gets together for the plan I had been waiting for the entire book, it's great. The intro mentioned that the book is kind of a tribute to the author’s mom and I could really feel it in those moments.

I appreciate what the author was trying to do with the Mrs. Greene character and the vampire going after children he thinks won't be missed but the execution didn't really work for me. Mrs. Greene had to take charge of everything all the time and it basically circled around from her being part of the team to her having to coddle and take care of all the white characters. The women in the book club were thinly drawn and not very interesting. I only finished the book a couple of hours ago and I can only remember that Slick is religious, one is named Kitty, one wears whimsical sweaters and Grace is the biggest jerk. Patricia is a huge doormat and the husbands are universally terrible. It was weird to me that the parents weren't more concerned with their son’s nazi obsession, aside from it being mildly embarrassing in public.

My biggest negative though is the use of rape in this book. It really feels like it's just there for the shock scenes, and the way the women's (and girls’) bodies are described during those scenes is really voyeuristic and weird. The worst of the rape scenes takes place off-screen and the author STILL manages to describe the victim’s breasts and the state of her pubic hair. What happens to the character afterward is also weird and felt pointless.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Hate crime, Medical content, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Infidelity

Minor: Animal cruelty, Excrement, Fatphobia, and Vomit

There are some pretty gross "critter" scenes in this involving rats and bugs/spiders.

sachikoriddle's review

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Dementia, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Racism, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Infidelity

Minor: Fatphobia and Panic attacks/disorders